Diversity in literature

Hello, guys! I hope you are all keeping well and safe and enjoying the summer. I don't know what to think about this year's summer, on one hand, the days are long and can sometimes slouch on as the summer days do. On the other hand, I can't believe we are nearly half-way through July, soon it will be August and then back to school (whatever that will look like in a post-COVID-19 world).

What I wanted to write about today is diversity which is a word that is thrown around quite a lot these days and just how it relates to literature. I'm so excited about the movement to include more people of color in the publishing industry and the #ownvoices novels that have been coming up in the past couple of years, and that have technically been around but haven't had that much attention brought to them. I think it's all about supply and demand, people want to see people in stories that look like them and have had their experiences and for those who aren't part of that particular group can learn and just enjoy the new experiences and the other ways of life and thinking. We don't become victims of what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie calls "a single story". We can be so engrossed in stereotypes that we forget to see people as the complex beings that they are. The right representation can change how people see themselves and others and help us develop empathy. You can start to think that "There's someone that looks like me doing all those cool things." Maybe a kid who grew up with books that dealt with police brutality and then grew up to become a cop would think before he shot.

Well that's it for today, there's so much I want to write about on this subject, so I might do a part two next week. Hope you keep well, enjoy your day and I'll write soon.